Day 9 - my last night

It was an wonderful busy day! I started by taking my mom to the grocery store. I kind of chuckled to myself, as I was watching her toodle on her merry way throughout the store, that a few years ago this was her taking Grandma Bert to the grocery store for an outing of the day. She did quite well. She is walking on her own really well, but did great holding onto the cart going around the store. She was ready to go home afterward. She said that she has been walking around the house to try and build up her energy again and then when it starts to cool down at night she will go out back and walk around the back yard (she takes some laps). She is still not feeling 100% secure on her feet so she doesn't like to go out front to walk. Which I am glad in case she falls - that would start a whole new set of problems. I am glad she knows her lmits, but at the same time is trying everyday to stretch those limits!
After taking mom out I had some last minute preparations for my MOM's group pokeno party. My MOMs group hasn't been able to get together for a long time and we decided to just amke it happen this month. Since my house was free AND CLEAN I decided to host. Typically, we get together for Bunco, but I wanted to play Pokeno. I sent out the invites and the theme of the Pokeno night was "Be There or Be SQAURE" so everyone was supposed to bring something square as a prize. I didn't get pictures of all the great gifts, but we had a really neat picture frame, a beautiful square serving dish, a Josh Grobin CD, a square jar with some square chocolates inside and a box of wine! So great! I won a round and won this little "beauty"! (NOT) I will be regifting this to TJ! :-)

Some photos of the DIVAS MOM's group.

Kelly and Harmony~
Harmoney & Monica (who was such a trooper...she had just flown in from London the night before and was very jet lagged!) Thanks Monica for coming!
Regina and her friend Lynette~

Brenda, Karen, Monica, and me~
My "something square" food presentation. Tried to find something sqaure for all the food to go on.

Day 7 & 8

Day 7 - Tuesday - Not much to report. Pretty much a normal day (except no kids to taxi around, be a maid for, or a referee to their fights). I took mom out shopping briefly then we had lunch and she went home to nap while I went to work. I worked the rest of the day until atleast 9:00 trying to get caught up. Crazy I know, but I am behind...thus the whole reason why I asked my boyz to take a trip without me so I could catch up! Feeling better about that. A little bit closer to feeling like I have a handle on my work load.

Day 8 - Wednesday - I went to work over at the Urgent Care. I knew I needed to get up early and get over to the Urgent Care becuase my last remaining free days are LIMITED! So I rolled out of bed at 7:45. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for. I had to leave the Urgent Care by 1:15 so I could get back to Mesa for a very important appointment...get my gray colored!!!!! :-) Anyways, you all will be happy to know I made it and now I don't look like a zebra anymore! YAY!! Then after my hair I had yet another important appointment! A MASSAGE! Matthew's school had a silent auction back in April and TJ "won/bought" me a massage that comes to your home! How luxurious!!!! It was pretty cool!

After my massage, Amy came over and we went to Phoenix to join the staff at Arcadia Urgent Care to say "so long for now" to EJ. We shared a couple of drinks and then Amy and I raced to the airport to try and surprise Steph, Ben & Morgan at the airport coming home from Japan. They had a long travel day so I knew they would be tired, but thought we could give them a ride home. Turns out Delta out sourced their flight to Alaska Airlines so we missed them! They got a taxi and home they went! Such a bummer, but it's the thought that counts, right???? No big deal, am just glad they are home and if I am lucky, I will be able to go and see Eclipse with Steph and Morgan tomorrow! OOOOHHH This just gets better and better! :-)

Until later....

Day 3-6

Days 3-5 I really can't excite anyone about my "Me Time". It was boring to most and LUXURIOUS to me. I practically did NOTHING. I slept in until around 8 (or later some days). I went shopping with my friend, Monica, Friday night. We went to Scottsdale Fashion Square. That was a fun time. I used to work at that mall and besides some of the stores changing, the mall really hadn't changed throughout the years. It still is a place to walk around after a nice dinner or a "meat market" for the single crowd. It is quite the place to people watch. Ranks up there with the airport.

Saturday, my high point was brunch with my mom at IHOP. Fun huh! Was for me because I could eat breakfast foods all day if I could and was for my mom as she is feeling better and wanted to get out of the house for a bit. Then we went back to her house and I noticed her water heater was leaking so we worked on getting that fixed. She had an expensive day on Saturday!

4th of July was another day that I stayed inside the majority of the day. Cleaned the refrigerator and did some laundry. See I told you...boring! But on the bright side I have a clean fridge and clean clothes! Ha ha

It was an eventful day for Luke as he had his 1st ER visit. He hit his head while in Ohio and ended up with staples. I was really bummed that I wasn't there with him for this momentous occasion, but everything ended up alright in the end. TJ did a bang up job! (can you believe they handled everything without mom? Crazy that they can manage without me, right?)

Here is a picture taken of Luke's head after the staples.

After the ER visit, Luke took a little nap and then they were off to a 4th of July carnival. Again, proof that Dad did a terrific job! Know I now he can do these things so no excuses, right?

Today, I went to work for a few hours and then after a brief hello to my mom I decided to go and see a movie. I wasn't in the mood to sit at home. I actually thought about seeing Eclipse again (I know I am obsessed) but, am hoping that I will be able to see it with Steph and Morgan when they come home from Japan. I went and saw Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It was terrific. Just what I needed. I laughed a ton! They were great together in the movie. Very entertaining! Two thumbs up!

Now I am off to bed! I am actually setting my alarm for the morning because I am taking some friends to the airport so they can go get out of the heat. They are going to visit family in Alaska! I think they will actually be COLD. They say it is in the 50's and 60's during the day which is like our winters!

Having a nice time, but missing my boyz! It is very quiet....and CLEAN in my house! I am getting a little weirded out about that. I haven't had to yell at anyone in many days so either that will make me more patient when they return or I will have saved 9 days worth and BLOW! I am a little nervous to find out...poor boys. They have no idea what they are in store upon their return! :-)

Until later...

Day 2

I woke up at 6:05 am and rolled right over and fell back asleep. Woke up at 7:25 am. YAY! That was terrific! I had to FORCE myself out of bed to get in the shower to get ready to start the day! I just wanted to lay in bed and watch movies ALL DAY. I did end up going to work.

After work I went to get my well overdue pedi! You know that you need one when your heels start getting snagged on the couch. Poor technician had to pull out the sandblaster. Ha Ha Really not that bad, but Feeling a little patriotic so got a little design on my toes.

Stopped by Mom's house after my toes. She was doing well. Stopped by the pet store to try and get some fish food that I wouldn't have to touch. I told the boys I would feed the fish, but the smell of the food makes me want to gag so I was hoping I could find some that I didn't have to touch. I was surprised that there were as many types of fish food to choose from as chocolate.

Anyways, a mostly uneventful day.

Until later...

"Me Time" - Day 1

I feel a little like Doogie Howser, but I thought I would journal my time while my "boyz" are gone. It was a nice relaxing day. Didn't seem any different; just like if they were our fishing or something. I did enjoy the quiet time. I watched a couple shows that I had DVR'd. I did find myself RUSHING through some of them as I was afraid they would come home in the middle of the show or something and I wouldn't be able to finish it! Guess what!? That didn't happen! Ha Ha

As I was getting ready to go out on my date with Edward, I cranked up my ipod and sang to all of my GLEE songs that TJ really doesn't care for. I wasn't too bad, I guess, but I am not auditioning anytime soon! :-) Even though I would be the best Gleek EVER!!!

Went to see Eclipse with my sister Amy and my friend Brenda. It was AWESOME!!!!
Scott went to Jared (aka: Burger King drive-thru) and bought Amy and I these Edward rings! Aren't they just one-of-a-kind? Anyways, super sweet of him! I will treasure it forever...until my heart stops beating!!!! (you'll understand that one if you have read the books or seen the movie!)

As I was dropping Amy off at home after the movie, it hit me! I didn't have anyone at home to tuck into bed (because they are rarely asleep early when TJ has them) nor anyone to check on before I went to bed. I was a little sad! But, then I got over it and thought...I am not setting my alarm tomorrow morning! I wonder what time I will wake up! I am sure it will be odd in the morning when I get up and won't have to rush around getting little ones dressed and out the door.

Not a bad 1st day!

Until later!

Kid Pitch...oh my!!!!

Matthew is playing kid pitch baseball this year. YIKES! It is so much fun to watch these boys each year. Every year they get better and better. This year Matthew is trying out catching and pitching. Can you believe that???? Matthew looks so big to me, then I see him in the catching gear and he looks like my little guy again!
Baseball was TJ's favorite sport growing up so it is really hard that he cannot coach Matthew at baseball. He is just too busy during the spring to coach. He is going to sign Luke up for tee-ball this summer...that is a fun time! There are usually more parents than kids on the field since they are just learning at that age.
Here are some videos of Matthew playing ball...some are a little long, but want his Grandma Casey to see him play!

Matthew catching....

Casey at the bat...

Matthew got a hit!!!!

I have some of him pitching, but I need to go to bed. I will try and get those up tomorrow.

A little funny

The other night I went to pick up Matthew and Luke at my Mom's. Matthew is on Spring Break and Luke's sitter took the week off so she could spend Spring Break with her kids. I asked this girl in our neighborhood if she would help me out during Spring Break. She watches the boys all day and then takes them over to my Mom's around 4ish so she gets a break and then Mom doesn't have them all day. Anyways, the other night I went to get them and Matt said to me "Mom, Miss Nicole's car is so cool. She has these really cool windows! There is this handle that you have to turn around and around to get the window to go down or when you want to roll it up!" I said WOW! That IS so cool! I just didn't have it in my heart to tell him that I grew up with cars that had those. It was just so cute!